Back when I was in school teachers would always scare me with stories of how my exploits would end up in my permanent record. I believe this is it! – Geoff Fox

From Now On The World Will Be Documented

Steffie and her roommate went to Manhattan today. They were on a mission. Paul Rudd, pictured above, is starring in a Broadway play with Julia Roberts. The roommate (I haven’t gotten permission to divulge her name) wanted Paul, an actor she favors, to sign a poster from a movie he had been in.

Here’s what I’ve heard from Stef. Julia Roberts: tiny, didn’t speak, only signed for those with ticket stubs from today’s performance (Can’t blame her. She’d be there all day).

Paul Rudd was very nice and schmoozed with the crowd for a while, which is good considering he was the ‘goal’ of the day.

Enough of this. It’s not why I’ve posted the entry.

Look at the photo again. Count the cameras!

Some are actual cameras that people have brought for their day in the city. Most are not. Most are cellphone cameras. That means they are carried whenever the owner is out.

This is a huge change, and we need to get used to it and get ready for its implications. From now on, virtually everything in public will be documented in one way or another.

We’re already seeing some of this with surveillance video (and I assume there are surveillance cameras outside this theater). Now we will see it in ‘pedestrian’ events that turn important.

It will be tougher to make claims or denials when whatever you do could be digitized, even if you don’t realize it at the time. I suppose, from now on, we’ve all got to act as if we’re always on camera.